This year the ALA Annual was held at the New Orleans Convention Center, a massive venue. We quickly realized that a building 1.2 miles long means a LOT of walking! This time around, we had a better-than-ever 20'x30' booth to showcase our product with a nice, well-lit, long smoothie bar. Our Mango Smoothies were even more desirable for those attendees who completed the journey to our aisle.

Overall, the show was a great success. The focus this year was on the highly anticipated iPhone Application that was made available in the App Store just hours before the show. As curious potential customers and veteran Mango fans came to our booth we passed out Mango badges, gave personal demonstrations of the unique features that each Mango course has to offer--such as the phonetic pop up, cultural notes, Organic Learning slides, and our Voice Comparison feature. We made sure that each attendee left educated and Mangofied. Our fans came to our booth raving about Mango, and we couldn't pass that opportunity up without getting some incredible video testimonials. We truly have the best fans!

This year the Mango VIP after party took place at The Rusty Nail on Constance Street in New Orleans. This year's party topped all the previous ones! With the Mango drinks flowing, the open patio, and the incredible Jazz band, the crowd of roughly 200 guests seemed to have a blast. It was so much fun to see all of our guests participate and meet the Mango staff in our traditional game of Guess that Mango. What made this year's after-party even more unique was the announcement of Mango Mania's 2011 winners. Five teams made up of our ultimate fans battled it out through Mango challenges to show their love for Mango and potentially win $2500 toward a Mango subscription and an iPad2 for each teammate. The winner of Mango Mania 2011... (drum roll) ... was Team MO (Mango Obsessed)! Their name says it all. The two teammates, Amy and Jessica, gave it their all while completing Mango-specific challenges all the way through New Orleans. Check out their Facebook Fan page to see amazing photos and videos of their Mango Mania journey. Congratulations Team MO!

We would like to thank everyone who has made this weekend in the Big Easy amazing!

Rachel works with some of the coolest marketers, designers, and writers around to help Mango look and sound its best. She loves bold colors, old books, the Montréal metro, and Star Trek. She has conflicting feelings about the Oxford comma.